Stranded U.S. Students Set to Leave Ebola-Stricken Liberia

Six American college students stranded in Liberia as the Ebola epidemic rages have made arrangements to return home — but they will not be able to leave the country for another 11 days. Tuskegee University said the six students, who are in the Liberian capital of Monrovia as part of a study abroad program, are in a safe location and that none are ill. The students will leave Liberia on Aug. 17 and will fly from Accra, Ghana, to the U.S. on Aug. 18.

“We are pleased that the matter of securing our students' safe return has progressed exponentially,” Tuskegee University President Brian Johnson said in a statement Wednesday. The president also thanked Liberian officials for ensuring the students safety.

More than 500 suspected cases of Ebola and almost 300 deaths have been recorded in Liberia, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. Monrovia closed a major hospital after the director and six staff tested positive. Also Wednesday, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said all of its 274 missionaries in Liberia and Sierra Leone, another country hard-hit by the epidemic, have left those countries.